The Vision SideKick Guy
by Summersfan
Summary: Just a little AU on the end of Season 5, for laughs.
1. The End which is the beginning

The Vision Side-Kick 

Author: Summersfan

Rated PG

Summary: What if, instead of Fading Away, we had a different ending? One a little more... twisty?

Disclaimer: I own nothing

This was it. The moment that they had been working up to all year, ever since Angel took charge of Wolfram and Hart and Spike came back to life to torment him. Ever since Lindsey came back to try and steal Angel's destiny. This was the moment.

They had crawled through the depths of hell itself to get here. Everyone else had fallen behind, either wounded in the body or else in their soul. Now Angel stood alone on the catwalk, staring down at the Senior Partners, who had come here, to this dimension, to witness his failure.

Well, almost alone.

Spike and Lindsey, the two allies he hated the most, stood with him. They had used Lindsey's inside knowledge to get this far, and Spike was the only one who could keep up with the two of them. Even Illyria lacked the fire to get this far.

Angel wished she was here. He hated her less than Spike, all things considered.

Lindsey held the cup of perpetual torment on his hands, shaking slightly. That cup was the true one, this time, the one they had searched for. The one they had missed in the opera house.

This time, it really was the cup of perpetual torment.

Spike eyed the cup, and for a moment Angel thought they would have to fight again. This close to the senior partners and their thugs they would certainly attract some unwelcome attention. He wasn't sure that they could survive that attention. He might have to be noble and let Spike have the cup.

Besides, Spike would probably just win again if they fought.

"The cup of perpetual torment," said Lindsey. "I wonder what it'll taste like."

"As long as it's not Mountain Dew, we're fine,"sighed Angel.

Spike squared his shoulders. "Right, then. I'll just go over there, reconnoiter." It took Angel a minute to realize that Spike was abdicating, giving him the cup.

That filled him with rage, for some reason.

Lindsey nodded at Angel's comment. "This is it. The real deal.It's time for one of you to drink."

"And these are all the senior partners."

"In this dimension, they're vulnerable,"said Lindsey quickly. "We can wipe them out—a Champion can wipe them out."

Angel glanced at Spike, who was staring down at the partners. His back was rigid, his mind made up. "Stupid idiot," muttered Angel, reaching for the drink.

What right did Spike have to make that kind of sacrifice?

Lindsey pulled the cup away. "No!" he said, harshly.

"What?"

"You can't, Angel.You shouldn't. If you're the vampire, the vampire with the soul..." Lindsey swallowed. "When the final battle comes, do you know which side you're on? Do you know where you stand?"

"No.I don't. They've screwed me around so badly... And there's that possession deal they claim they can do to me. And I'm pretty sure if the Powers show up I'm going to kick their butts."

"Do you know which side Spike is on? Do you know which side he'll fight on?"

Angel looked at Spike, and knew. Right into his bones, he knew. Spike was infuriating—and he wasn't truly good. But he was stubborn. Right to the end, with no surrender, with no compromise, Spike was going to fight. He wouldn't be joining the Senior Partners no matter what they offered him. He couldn't be controled, as Lindsey had proven, to his own detriment.

Angel sighed. "You can't...you can't ask me to do this. Give up my humanity. Give up my reward."

"Can you do that? For the world, Angel! You can save the world."

"By abandoning my own last chance."For a moment the symmetry of it amused him. He would become a true hero, by passing the hero mantle on. A purely heroic decision. One for his own salvation.

Angel took the cup from Lindsey, and advanced on Spike. "Spike."

"We ready to go?" asked Spike through clenched teeth.

"Drink it,"said Angel, shoving the cup into Spike's face. Spike recoiled, staring.

"It's yours!" He protested, but he grabbed it out of Angel's hand. He stared down at it. "Why?"

"Because I can be a hero and save the world,"said Angel, the irony making him smile.

Spike drank it.

The strange red haze around the room faded, and the senior partners below them stared around, surprised. "Party time," said Angel, shifting to game face.

"Let's go, lawyer boys!" whooped Spike, vaulting the railing and dropping into the midst of them.

* * *

Angel sat at his desk, catching his breath. "I can't believe...ungh!" He shifted. "You meant to do that!" he accused Lindsey.

Lindsey shrugged. "I really don't like you. Getting to beat you with a baseball while you were possessed—it was kind of fun."

Angel shook his head, glancing at Spike. "I guess we aren't in charge of Wolfram and Hart any more."

"Seeing as we blew it up, I think not," said Spike, grinning from ear to ear.

Angel glanced at Spike, and felt his heart fall a little. "And I guess you're the champion of prophecy."

Lindsey glanced at Angel. "You saved the world." He reminded Angel.

"I saved the world."

His head suddenly seemed to explode, and he grabbed his temples in surprise, vamping out. "Argh!"

"What?" said Spike, trying to cover up his concern.

"There's a girl...on a bus. She's in trouble...vampires. We need to help her."

"What?" Spike didn't understand. He'd never seen someone recieve a vision like this. Never known what it was like to be a toy for the Powers.

"It's leaving a hotel...the big one, with the arches..."

"I know that place," Lindsey said, moving towards the pile of weapons they'd thrown to the floor upon entering the room.

"Let's go," said Spike, still confused, but already focusing on the violence he wanted.

Angel shot forward, grabbing Lindsey by the throat. "You did this to me!" he accused the former lawyer. "You knew this would happen! You knew!"

"I knew?" said Lindsey, croaking. "What? What?"

"You didn't know," realized Angel, letting Lindsey go.

Flashback

* * *

"Urgh! That means I still have it! Damn, I can't believe he did this to me!" Ranted Cordelia.

Angel, still reeling from her kiss, managed to stutter out, "Who did what?"

"Doyle! I thought our kiss meant something, and instead he - he used that moment to pass it on to me!"

End Flashback

* * *

"You BITCH!" screamed Angel.

"Hey!" said Lindsey, affronted, pushing the vampire away.

"She made me the side-kick vision guy! She did that to me! To ME!"

"She who?" askedSpike, more amused than concerned.

Angel growled. "She knew I'd need a reason to keep on fighting, and she made me the vision side-kick guy! That's so stupid!"

"Hey!" said Spike. "Are you coming along to save the girl, or what? I don't have all day, you know."

Angel straightened his back and sighed. "I get to drive."

"Hey! What's wrong with my driving?" Spike even managed to inject some real outrage into his voice.

"Signs are for directions. Not speed bumps."

"It's symbolic, mate!"

"Of what? Your driving skills? Your relationship skills?"


	2. The beginning following the End

Disclaimer: I own nothing at all. 

Angel stewed.

It wasn't like brooding at all, he had discovered. Brooding didn't have any smoldering anger. When brooding you didn't fondle a sword. When brooding, your friends didn't back slowly away from you.

What few friends he had left, that is.

This new office that Spike had found was nice—a step down from Wolfram and Hart, but since he and Spike had blown the office to a million pieces and slaughtered the senior partners, Angel didn't think there would be any going back.

Spike came sauntering into the lobby, grinning. Since the lobby was Angel's domain, he thought it was hardly fair that his old enemy and new boss was allowed to saunter her.

"What?" asked Angel sharply. He wasn't good at sauntering anyway.

"It's Lindsey—"

"No, no, when I say what, I don't meant tell me what's going on. I mean, tell me why you're sauntering in here and looking at me instead of solving it yourself. You're the Champion, not me!"

"Eh?"

"I'm not the boss!" Growled Angel.

Spike swaggered past Angel. "Hey,where's Illyria? She's usually more charming than you, anyway. Morefun."

"She's hunting for Lindsey, who ran off AGAIN."

Spike sighed, sitting down. "Lindsey, Lindsey, Lindsey. I am getting sick of the ponce. You used to do this job for money?"

"We'll need money, otherwise we'll have to resort to stealing to pay the bills—not that you'd have a problem with that, huh?"said Angel bitterly.

Spike shrugged. "Seems wrong, charging for saving a life."

Angel sighed, staring at the other vampire. "Oh, we're ethical now, are we?"

"Ethics have nothing to do with it. It's I suppose you don't care about that, eh? We'll all have to get day jobs, I imagine. Make ends meet."

Angel shook his head, glancing around. "This is insane," he muttered. "You, lecturing us on right and wrong."

Spike shrugged. "Unique, that's the word you're looking for. Now—?" He glanced to Angel, quizzical. Angel had let out a gasp of breath, a pained gasp, and Spike knew what it meant instantly."Vision?"

Angel squeezed his eyes shut, clutching his head. "Yes," he said shortly, trying to make sense of what he'd just seen. His eyes popped open. "It's Buffy, and she's here."

"In LA?" asked Spike.

"Downstairs,"replied Angel, already jumping up and running for the door. Spike reached it at the same moment, grabbing his shoulder, and they froze in the doorway, struggling to push the other out of the way.

"She's in trouble!" growled Angel, finally breaking the stalemate. Spike pushed through with a sudden burst of strength, running flatout for the stairs. He dove forward, diving down the stairs to land at the bottom with a crash and roll to his feet. Angel jumped feetfirst, landing where Spike had landed.

Spike was already up and moving towards the door. Outside they could hear the sounds of a struggle.

Spike kicked the door open, slamming it into Buffy's back and knocking her down. Angel leapt through the open door, slamming into the demon Buffy had been fighting.

Spike followed him, and between the two of them they managed to wale the demon to the ground. They were panting hard, and just about finished, when Gunn, who'd been upstairs resting, stumbled down the stairs, holding a crossbow. He was bandaged about ten ways from Sunday, but still had enough energy left to look very menacing.

For short periods of time.

"Oh," he said, disappointed, lowering his crossbowand leaning against the wall behind him.He glanced to Buffy, who was dusting herself off.

"What's going on?" she asked, surprised.

Angel and Spike exchanged a short glance. "Thought you were in trouble," said Spike.

"Well, I was," she said. "But...Spike? You're not dead, huh?"

"Uh, yeah. Got better," he said, sniffing almost haughtily. He glanced at Angel, and grinned smugly. "Got a little surprise for you."

Buffy pressed a hand to her forehead. "Right, sure." She sighed heavily, clearly perturbed with Spike's reappearance.

"What are you doing?" asked Angel.

"Mentally going over the different ways I'm going to kick Andrew's butt. I knew he was hiding something from me. I hear there was an Apocalypse here."

Spike glanced to Angel. "We handled it."

"Right, you handled it." Buffy seemed resigned to Spike's presence, without too much histrionics. This was not the reaction either vampire had expected.

"Are you all right?" asked Angel.

"Well, how am I supposed to take this!" asked Buffy angrily, her green eyes flashing. "Spike's alive, and nobody bothered to tell me? He's been here, helping you? What few parts of my life made sense, don't."

Spike cleared his throat. "Was that why you came here? Because of the Apocalypse?" he asked.

"I came because I heard that Angel broke it off with Wolfram and Hart," said Buffy, after a short silence. She crossed her arms, looking at Angel. "If you're back on our side, we'd like you to help us open an LA branch of Watchers."

Spike cleared his throat, crossing his arms. "Watchers?" he asked, his voice low.

Angel fidgeted, seeing where this was going. "Buffy, that may not be the best idea..." he muttered.

Buffy rolled her eyes. "This city is just steeped in evil—we need to fight it."

"This city is my responsibility," said Spike. Buffy raised an eyebrow, glancing to Angel. "If you want to move Watchers in, then we're going to have to get a few ground rules set up, right here and right now."

"Your city?" asked Buffy. "Excuse me? Maybe you didn't get the memo about Angel being the Champion of good and all that stuff. I think that gives him a little more pull than you in deciding what we're going to do, don't you? I mean, you're his sidekick, right?"

Spike flashed a grin. "Oh, yeah." He spread his arms. "I'd like you to meet the Champion. The. Singular. And my seer, I think you know him." He pointed at Angel, who shook his head and sighed.

"What?" said Buffy, confused.

"I'm the Vision Side-Kick guy," said Angel.

Buffy frowned. "That's—what about the prophecies?"

"Prophecies? Hm. Oh, you mean the ones about the vampire with the soul!" said Angel sarcastically, pointing at Spike, who grinned. "And, oh, yeah—he gets to be human again someday!"

Buffy frowned. "Oh."

Spike grinned.

"And why didn't you call me, tell me you were alive?"

Spike grinned at her."Don't kid a kidder, love."

Buffy shook her head. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Just what I said. Now, you came here on business?"

Buffy scowled. "I brought the whole crew.Or what passes for the whole crew these days."

Angel sighed. "Well, we don't work out of a hotel any more, so I can't invite them all to stay with us."

Buffy glanced from him to Spike. "I thought you were the side-kick?"

"I'm the side-kick who owns the building."

"Yeah, his digs," said Spike. "Anything else we should know?"

Buffy sighed. "Don't think you're getting off that easily," she warned the two vampires.

Spike grinned. "Well, that's one of the advantages of having a side-kick-slash-whipping-boy. I do get off that easy. Er... I might want to rephrase that."

"Please," begged Angel.


End file.
